The Girls of Hillcrest Farm; Or, The Secret of the Rocks

by Amy Bell Marlowe

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  THE SECRET REVEALED

  Lyddy did not have to go all the way to the Pritchett farm to speak withits proprietor. The farmer was wandering up Hillcrest way, looking atthe growing corn, and she met him at the corner where the two farms cametogether.

  "Mr. Pritchett," she said, abruptly, "I want to ask you a seriousquestion."

  He looked at her in his surly way--from under his heavy brows--and saidnothing.

  "You knew Mr. Spink when you were both boys; didn't you?"

  The old man's look sharpened, but he only nodded. Cyrus was very charyof words.

  "Mr. Spink left Hillcrest this morning. Last night my sister caught himin the east wing, trying to break open grandfather's desk with a burglar'sjimmy. I am not at all sure that I shan't have him arrested, anyway," saidLyddy, with rising wrath, as she thought of the false professor's actions.

  "Ha!" grunted Mr. Pritchett.

  "Now, sir, you know _why_ Spink came to Hillcrest, _why_ he has beensearching up there among the rocks, and _why_ he wanted to get atgrandfather's papers."

  "No, I don't," returned the farmer, flatly.

  "You and Spink were up at Hillcrest the first night we girls slept there.And you frightened my sister half to death."

  The old man blinked at her, but never said a word.

  "And you were there with Spink the evening Lucas took 'Phemie and me downto the Temperance Club--the first time," said Lyddy, with surety. "Youslipped out of sight when we drove into the yard. But it was you."

  "Oh, it was; eh?" growled Mr. Pritchett.

  "Yes, sir. And I want to know what it means. What is Spink's intention?What does he want up here?"

  "I couldn't tell ye," responded Pritchett.

  "You mean you won't tell me?"

  "No. I say what I mean," growled Pritchett. "Jud Spink never told me whathe wanted. I was up to the house with him--yep. I let him go into thecellar that night you say your sister was scart. But I didn't leave himalone there."

  "But _why_?" gasped Lyddy.

  "I can easy tell you my side of it," said the farmer. "Jud and me wassomething like chums when we was boys. When he come back here a spellago he heard I was storing something in the cellar under the east wing ofthe house. He told me he wanted to get into that cellar for something.

  "So I met him up there that night. I opened the cellar door and we wentdown. I kept a lantern there. Then I found out he wanted to go farther.There's a hatch there in the floor of the old doctor's workshop----"

  "A trap door?"

  "Yes."

  "And you let him up there?"

  "Naw, I didn't. He wouldn't tell me what he wanted in the old doctor'soffices. I stayed there a while with him--us argyfyin' all the time. Thenwe come away."

  "And the other time?"

  "On Saturday night? I caught him trying to break in at the cellar door.I warned him not to try no more tricks, and I told him if he did I'dmake it public. We ain't been right good friends since," declared Mr.Pritchett, chewing reflectively on a stalk of grass.

  "And you don't know what it's all about?" demanded Lyddy, disappointedly.

  "No more'n you do," declared Mr. Pritchett; "or as much."

  "Oh, dear me!" cried Lyddy. "Then I'm just where I was when I started!"

  "You wanter watch Jud Spink," grumbled Mr. Pritchett, rising from thefence-rail on which he had been squatting. "Does he want to buy the farm?"

  "Why--I guess not. He only made Aunt Jane a small offer for it."

  "He'll make a bigger," said Pritchett, clamping his jaws down tight onthat word, and turned on his heel.

  She knew there was no use in trying to get more out of him then. CyrusPritchett had "said his say."

  When Lyddy got back to the house again she found that Grandma Castle'sfolks had come to see her in their big automobile, and she and 'Phemiehad to hustle about with Mother Harrison to re-set the enlarged diningtable and make other extra preparations for the unexpected visitors.

  So busy were they that the girls did not miss Harris Colesworth andhis father. They appeared just before the late dinner, rather warm andhungry-looking for the Sabbath, Harris bearing something in his armscarefully wrapped about in newspapers.

  "Oh, what have you got?" 'Phemie gasped, having just a minute to speak tothe young man.

  "Samples of the water Spink has bottled up there," returned Harris.

  "What is it?"

  "I don't know. But we'll find out. Father has an idea, and if it's_so_----"

  "Oh, what?" cried 'Phemie.

  "You just wait!" returned Harris, hurrying away.

  "Mean thing!" 'Phemie called after him. "You oughtn't to have any dinner."

  But there was little chance for Harris to talk with the girls that day.Before the dinner dishes were cleared away, a thunder cloud suddenlytopped the ridge, and soon a furious shower fell, with the thunderreverberating from hill to hill, and the lightning flashing dazzlingly.

  Behind this shower came a wind-storm that threatened, for a couple ofhours, to do much damage. Everybody was kept indoors, and as the nightfell dark and threatening the Castles had to be put up until morning.

  The wind quieted down at last; so did the nervous members of the partyinside Hillcrest. When Lyddy and 'Phemie thought almost everybody else wasabed but themselves, and they were about to lock up the house and retire,a candle appeared in the long corridor, and behind the candle was HarrisColesworth, fully dressed.

  "Sunday is about over, girls," he said, "and I can't possibly sleep. Imust do something. Didn't you tell me, Miss 'Phemie, there were retortsand test-tubes, and the like, in your grandfather's rooms?"

  "In the east wing?" cried Lyddy.

  "Yes."

  "Why, the back room was his laboratory. All the things are there," saidthe younger girl.

  "Let me go in there, then," said Harris, eagerly. "I want to test thesesamples of water father and I brought down from the rocks to-day."

  "My mercy me!" gasped 'Phemie. "You don't suppose there's gold--orsilver--held in solution in that water----"

  Lyddy laughed. "How ridiculous!" she said.

  "Perhaps not exactly ridiculous," returned Harris, shaking his head, andsmiling.

  "Why, Harris Colesworth! who ever heard of such a thing?" cried Lyddy."I'm no chemist, but I know _that_ would be impossible."

  "Will you let me have the key of the green door?" he demanded.

  "Yes!" cried 'Phemie, who had continued to carry it tied around her neck."But we'll go with you and see you perform your nefarious rites, Mr.Magician!"

  Lyddy went for a lamp and brought it, lighted. "A candle won't do you muchgood in there," she said to Harris.

  "Verily, it is so!" admitted the young man, with an humble bow.

  "Now, let me go first!" cried 'Phemie. "You'd both be scared stiff by myfriend, Mr. Boneypart."

  "Your friend _who_?" cried Lyddy.

  Harris began to laugh. "So you claim Napoleon as your friend; do you, Miss'Phemie? What do you suppose old Spink thinks about him?"

  'Phemie giggled as she ran ahead with the young man's candle and closedthe door of the skeleton case in the inner office.

  "For the simple tests I have to make," said Harris, as Lyddy's lamp threwa mellow light into the room, "I see no reason why those old tubes won'tdo. Yes! there's about what I want on that bench."

  "But, oh! the dust!" sighed Lyddy, trying to find a clean place on whichto set the lamp.

  "Your grandfather must have been something of a chemist as well as amedical sharp," observed Harris, gazing about. "I'm curious to look thisplace over."

  "We ought to ask Aunt Jane," said Lyddy, doubtfully. "We really haven'tany business in here."

  "She's never told us we shouldn't come," 'Phemie returned, quickly.

  "Now you young ladies sit down and keep still," commanded Harris,authoritatively, removing his coat and tying an apron around hiswaist--the apron being produced from his own pocket.

  "Now if you had your
straw cuffs you'd look just as you used to----"

  "At the shop, eh?" finished Harris, when Lyddy caught herself up quickin the middle of this audible comment.

  "Ye-es."

  "So you _did_ notice me a bit when you were working around the littlekitchen of that flat?" chuckled the young man.

  "Well!" gasped Lyddy. "I couldn't very well help remembering how youlooked the night of the fire when you came sliding across to our window onthat plank. _That_ was so ridiculous!"

  "Just so," responded Harris, calmly. "Now, please be still, young ladiesand--watch the professor!"

  And for an hour the girls did actually manage to keep as still as mice.Their friend certainly was absorbed in the work before him. He testedone sample of water after another, and finally went back and did the workall over upon one particular bottle that he had brought down from Spink'shiding place among the rocks.

  "Just as I thought," he declared, with a satisfied smile. "And just asfather suspected. Prepared to be surprised--pleasantly. Your Aunt Janemust be warned not to sell Hillcrest at _any_ price--just yet."

  "Oh, why not?" cried 'Phemie.

  "Because I believe there is a valuable mineral spring on it. This is asample of it here. Mineral waters with such medicinal properties as thiscontains can be put on the market at an enormous profit for the owner ofthe spring.

  "I won't go into the scientific jargon of it now," he concluded. "But thespring is here--up there among the rocks. Spink knows where it is. Thatis his secret. _We_ must learn where the water flows from, and likewise,see to it that your Aunt Jane makes no sale of the place until the matteris well thrashed out and the value of the water privilege discovered."